Books

The Gremlins Complete Text

It was ten days later. Gus was at readiness.

He had a temperature of about 102°, and a head that felt like a kitchen range. Obviously he had flu, but he was at war with the medicos and refused to report it. He was standing by his aircraft idly watching another machine circling the field to land.

Just then a head poked out of the window of the nearest hut and a voice shouted: "Red two scramble; scramble, Red two, scramble. Get your orders in the air."

Gus was in the cockpit of his Hurricane like a flash – parachute buckled, harness fastened, gas on, switches on – and away.

Gremlin Gus, who had by now received a little training and was well on the way to becoming a good gremlin, clambered up onto his master's shoulder and whispered: "You can't fly with flu, you can't fly with flu; better not try, better not try."

But it was too late, and Gus had made up his mind anyway. Just how he got off the ground he never knew. The starboard wing dropped so suddenly and violently that it nearly went into the ground. Gus saw just what had happened. A whole group of gremlins, standing by the cockpit, had taken a running jump onto the wing just as the plane took off.